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With progressive but reliable punitive reforms, the current conditions in India's criminal justice system can be resolved. The changes presented will promote significant economic, legal, and governmental growth that will increase productivity, and reduce the current prison population and recidivism rate through rehabilitation and the reduction of India's prison population.

Opportunity

Changes to India's criminal justice system are necessary. The overall budget for India's fiscal year 2019-20 prison system was 6,818.1 crores (Ministry of Indian Home Affairs, 2020, Page 247), or over 820 million USD. Currently, India's pretrial detainees represent approximately 70% of the total prison population (Ministry of Indian Home Affairs, 2020, Page 33). This number equates to thousands of backlogged individuals waiting to be tried in court.

The cost of running the current criminal justice system equates to millions in lost dollars that can be used for other programs. To exacerbate the problem, over 85,000 pretrial detainees are held for longer than a year (Ministry of Indian Home Affairs, Page 162), equating to more costs for India. This causes an unnecessary strain on the overall system, leading to overcrowding, poor sanitation and health conditions, and over-utilization of medical resources and staff.

Solutions

In India, prison reforms are a state subject, which makes implementing new regulations a state issue (Santhosh & Mathew, 2021). It is imperative, however, that the state governments work with the overall government of India to implement new prison reforms centered around rehabilitation as well as pretrial release for non-violent and low-risk offenders. Rehabilitation works to reduce recidivism and reduce the overall prison population. Prisons built toward rehabilitation help inmates better understand the effects of crime and take ownership of their actions (Negi & Tripathy, 2023). Further, rehabilitation focuses more on the problems at hand, and less on punishment, which does little to deter offenders from offending again once their prison time is up.

Another way India can reduce its prison population is by decreasing the number of pretrial detainees currently in prison. Approximately two-thirds of India's prisoners are awaiting trial (Bhandari, 2015). The solution to this problem lies in major structural changes in the foundation of India's criminal justice system. One part of the answer lies in improving access to lawyers and paralegals (Bhandari, 2015) and another by increasing the number of judges and courtrooms for a more expedited process. By revamping and overhauling India's current criminal justice system, India can dramatically decrease the current prison population, saving the Indian government millions each year and providing much-needed relief to convicted and pretrial detainees. The United Nations on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) suggests alternatives to imprisonment such as commuting or suspending minor offenses (Mahasethet al., 2023) and establishing fines for minor offenses. By simply reducing the pretrial detainee population by half, India could save almost half its annual prison system budget. In addition, the newly liberated resources would work to improve the living conditions for the remaining prison population. By releasing pretrial detainees with fines for lower-level offenses or focusing more on rehabilitation, India could see an increase in the productivity of its workforce, more revenue generated from fines, and a reduction in recidivism.

Timeline and Costs

An overall rework of the prison system will take time and require many policy, legal, and governmental reviews. Working with the Indian Supreme Court, the Indian government as well state governments, the process will take an estimated 7-10 years to complete. While the upfront costs for rehabilitation may seem to counter the idea of a more cost-effective system, the overall long-term benefits for the economy outweigh the immediate costs. The cost will be front-loaded by a thorough review of pretrial detainee legal paperwork and charges, with the elderly, pregnant, disabled, and lowest-risk offenders, being released, given fines instead of prison time, or expedited trial dates. The government will work to hire more government attorneys and judges. This in turn will begin the process of the immediate reduction in the prison population and costs will work to fund the rest of the transition.